Oil in Rain

The BP oil disaster has such proportions and such impact that the only event in the world's history to which a comparison can be drawn is Chernobyl. The BP oil disaster might be a lot worse than Chernobyl.

As always language, i.e. words, are used to spin the situation. In this case we have the term "spill". Webster defines it as "2 : to cause or allow especially accidentally or unintentionally to fall, flow, or run out so as to be lost or wasted". So, media is using the term as to indicate an accident (instead of negligence and overly risky enterprise with a high risk of failure) and to imply a small amount (instead of an ongoing leak that daily pours millions of gallons of oil into the ocean without a stop in sight). Instead of "spill" they should be saying "massive oil leak caused by negligence". Here is a real-time counter showing the hundreds of millions of gallons of oil that leaked so far.

It has started to rain oil in Louisiana (video also here). And with the oil drifting into the Atlantic it will rain toxic crude oil in far away places as Western Europe, the East Coast of the US, Central America, and eastern countries of South America. The soil will be polluted with the toxic crude oil. There is no protection and it is irreversible. The carcinogenic oil in the soil will go into our food chain (first crops, veggies, then animals) and finally we humans will consume it, by the millions in small doses causing cancer and other diseases.

Instead of Bon Appetit we will have to say Bon Pollution. Our liberty to select and buy healthy food will be crushed.

Generation M

This article entitled Generation Monsanto is so to the point that no extra commentary word is needed. Absolutely true.

Smile or Die

This is a cool 11-minute video about mandatory optimism in our society today and how it can be used for social control. It brings up a few good points. A longer video that not only includes the presentation by Barbara Ehrenreich but also a question and answer session is here. In the workplace context and the political arena it seems very convincing. Critical voices are disliked and pushed into the background or fired. Whistle blowers are poorly perceived by society in general.

In the private sphere it is not so obvious. Let's take patients with an illness. Are they more likely to recover if they have a positive attitude, i.e. hope, even if false hope?

Just as the author argues, realism should come first. If something is rotten, it should be outed. With realism solidly in place, optimism could fill the voids to give us a positive outlook whenever we have little information to go on. In other words: how about being optimistic by default until realism contradicts are positive assumptions at which point realism overrules positivism.

Happiness Defined

Found this definition of happiness by Chip Conley on TED in this video (10:49).

                         wanting what you have
Happiness =  ----------------------------------
                         having what you want

Ponder it.

Addicted to Plastic

"Addicted to Plastic" is a 2009 Canadian documentary film highlighting the issues around plastics, from manufacturing, recycling or lack of recycling and the pollution it causes. It has been on TV in several European countries and on screens around the world. It is a good first introduction on the problematics of microplastics. Various trailer and the film can also be found on YouTube.

A related 95-min documentary film which I haven't seen yet but is on my to-watch list is Plastic Planet which is from an Austrian production, also released in 2009. Both seem to be documentaries on the same topic. It will be interesting to compare the conclusions drawn from these two independent films. Here is the YouTube channel of Plastic Planet (in German).

Vote "No" on GM

The European Commission has just allowed genetically engineered crops into Europe, ignoring safety concerns of the public interest. There is a new EU citizen initiative with Greenpeace, Avaaz and Friends of the Earth - calling for a moratorium on GE and GM crops in the EU. The target is to collect 1 million online signature from EU citizens. If this goal is reached these non-profit organizations can submit an official legal request to the European Commission. If you are a EU citizen please sign. It is easy and only takes 60 seconds. It is crucial to keep GM foods out of the EU. More than 600,000 votes have been collected so far.

You can read more and sign the petition here: http://www.greenpeace.org/GEpetition. Please vote.

Intellectual Property Rights

The discussion on IP rights is quite hot. Material property rights seem to be easy. If you own a house and can prove it, it is yours. But the intellectual property is complicated. The in-favor-of-IP camp argues that any person who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof has a moral property right to it. The same camp argues that patents and IP rights create innovation by protecting R&D or other kind of intellectual investment. The contra-IP camp argues that unlike the material domain there are no moral rights on property in the intellectual domain. Furthermore they argue the IP right protection and patents stifle innovation as they prevent follow-up inventions and faster market absorption. In addition, preventing vital information and inventions to reach the market for the good of the common is unethical, immoral and speaks against IP rights. Imagine this example: Someone invents a cure for cancer, patents it and does not license it. Later a different person through independent means invents the same cure for cancer and wants to donate his invention to mankind. He is prevented. The second inventor has been robed of his freedom to donate his invention. The cancer patients are the ones to suffer the consequences. Another example would be big multinational oil companies buying up patents regarding non-gasoline powered vehicles and hiding these patents in a drawer. Such behavior is against the good of the common. And of course there are camps in between these extremes, camps that argue that some IP protection is beneficial for some type of IP.

How far can we go? How far have we gone? The IP rights are constantly expanded. First in time (now 20 years), then in scope. Genes can be patented. Whole plants are protected (see Monsanto and its generically modified seeds) already. Now corporations are trying to claim property rights on animals (e.g. Monsanto wants to patent the pig). What's next? Human body parts? Eye color genes?

This was in the news last week: "If the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) gets its way, the file-sharing company LimeWire will get blasted out of existence with a billion dollar fine. Meanwhile, British Petroleum, with its oil spill, that's on its way to the ecology disaster level of a Chernobyl, is liable for up to $75-million under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. What's wrong with this picture?" (Source: www.itworld.com) LimeWire provided means to share files, i.e. to enable IP infringement. BP polluted and continues to pollute the world's ocean and air. Does current legislation seem just?

UC Berkeley has a site with several high quality papers on IP. Not that I agree with all the conclusions but these publications offer a good discussion of the topic. "A World Without Intellectual Property? Boldrin and Levine, Against Intellectual Monopoly" by Richard Gilbert, "The Justification of Intellectual Property: Contemporary Philosophical Disputes" by Kenneth Himma, and "Monopoly, Mercantilism, and Intellectual Property" by Thomas Nachbar. Each paper has a button "Similar Items" to show related scientific publications.

Bitcoin

As a Top-10 open source application I ran across Bitcoin, a digital currency. I studied it and found this currency very intriguing. There is no central point (such as an issuing central bank or issuing corporation) and there is nothing (no material goods such as gold) that backs it up. Here are some key links to inform yourself about the working and principles of Bitcoin: home page, Wikipedia, a blog entry on mises.org, and a summary blog on The Monetary Future.

Pros:

• Since there is no central point it is less likely to be manipulated and control is outside the sphere of one powerful organization (like the FED, a central bank, or a corporation).
• There is no inflation, the Bitcoin currency is limited to 21,000,000 units, i.e. BTCs, brought into existence slowly over time.
• It cuts out the middleman (i.e. banks) as individuals can trade directly with each other without the need to go through a banking system or a clearing house. That makes it more efficient, cheaper and reduces dependencies, i.e. risks.
• It is more libertarian as transactions are not monitored by governmental agencies and can be done with anonymity. However, if such a currency were to become popular, it is nearly certain that legislation would be put in place to require individuals to report on such transactions. It would be treated like off-shore banking by governmental agencies.

Cons:

• As a weak point I see stability. Clearly the interchange value to other currencies will fluctuate. That's fine. But what will give it intrinsic stability? Apparently intrinsic stability comes from trust into the currency, but as we know trust levels can fluctuate and even be manipulated (e.g. through the media).
• It is electronic money requiring some sort of electronic device to carry the currency with you. Today this is a laptop. In the future this could be your cell phone and you could carry that to the local store to buy a loaf of bread and pay through a transaction initiated by yourself on your cell phone at the checkout.

Bitcoin can be part of a competing multi-currency infrastructure providing a solution to our monetary problems.

Percy Schmeiser

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Percy Schmeiser and his wife in person on his European tour. He is a soft-spoken person with a simple and direct personality; he is about 77 years old, a life-long farmer, with several kids all working in agro-related areas. This year, due to age and time constraints, he is giving up farming. If you have seen any documentaries on Monsanto it is nearly certain that you have seen some video snippets of Percy Schmeiser. He is the Canadian farmer -- his grandma was from Austria hence his interesting name -- that was sued for years by Monsanto after Monsanto had found patented genetically modified (GM) crop on his field that grew from seeds that the wind had blown in. In short, his fields got contaminated and polluted by foreign Monsanto GM crop and then he got sued for not paying patent licenses to Monsanto. Percy took up the fight and took the topic to the Canadian Supreme Court. There were 3 law suits in total Percy told me over a glass of white wine in a chat. He further explained that even though it is illegal in Canada to patent plants, it is legal to patent genes and the court ruled that if the genes are in plants then the right to the whole plant goes to the gene patent holder. Through this backdoor it became possible to practically patent plants in Canada against their legislation. If I understood him correctly the final outcome of the lawsuits were that it was declared that he infringed on the rights of Monsanto but he was freed from any punitive actions and any punitive payments. This backdoor for patenting plant life was also recognized by the Canadian courts that there are efforts underway to create new legislation to close it, but it will take years before it becomes reality.

Other countries, like the EU and in particular Austria, have learned a lesson from this legal case and this epic struggle of a single farmer against a giant corporation that controls about 80 percent of all the seeds on all the farmlands of all of North America. E.g. Austria has put a rule in place in 2005 prohibiting law suits where patented seeds are accidentally distributed onto fields such that the patent owner cannot request licenses for such seed contamination.

To opposite, the farmer suffering the contamination cannot defend himself or sue anyone. Imagine you are an organic farmer and through wind GM crop seeds are polluting your fields. Suddenly you are no longer an organic farmer and lose your license and farm. Who is to blame? The GM seed manufacturer, i.e. Monsanto, clearly says we are not liable for that, we just hold the patent on the seed. Can't sue the wind. The person responsible is the neighbor planting GM crop, but since no farmer can put an air-tight glass dome over his fields and no truck carrying crop can be wrapped in a giant condom, such gen pollution is virtually certain to happen. The neighboring farmer does not have to resources to prevent it.

Since this GM pollution into organic farms is happening already, regulatory bodies already had to tweak the definition of "organic". According to EU laws, organic food allows up to 0.9% of GM crop. In short, if organic food contains 0.9% GM food it will still receive the "organic" or "bio" label. I am afraid this is just the beginning, as GM pollution increases who prevents that this bar is silently raised from 0.9% to 2 or 3%? In any case, GM producers literally have taken away from us the right to eat 100%-GM-free food, it cannot be found anymore in regular supermarkets, especially if you not only take into account the GM pollution on the fields but also the ingredients like monoglyceride, diglyceride, lecithine, glutamat, E620 – ER625, in prepared food that do not require labeling. Furthermore vitamins B, C and E are frequently manufactured through GM microorganisms.

Since GM pollution is certain to happen and has happened already, and since it is irreversible we should be extra careful. Monsanto knows how to put a new gene into a plant, but they do not know how to take the plant out of circulation. There is no fail-safe behavior. You find a pesticide to be toxic, you can outlaw it and no longer use it. You find a GM crop to be harmful, you can no longer stop it. It will propagate itself, spread itself, mutate itself, ... it is a plant and it has a life of its own.

With Percy Schmeiser in town there is another event tonight highlighting his presence. The 65-minute documentary film "David versus Monsanto" will be screened publicly. It was produced 2009 by a German team. The film is also available here as well as a talk he did at UC Berkeley. Here is a short trailer.

I realized how annoying he must have become for the public relations campaigns of Monsanto when I found a long page dedicated to Percy Schmeiser on the Monsanto public web site. Have a look at this: http://www.monsanto.com/.../percy_schmeiser. The same is on their international sites like the Spanish one.

Monsanto regularly wins prizes: Monsanto won the 2009 Award for Worst Corporate Climate Lobbyist (by Angry Mermaid), Monsanto won the Least Ethical Company In The World Award (by Covalence, out of 581), ... (in Spanish).

Watch the film on this oh so ethical corporation Monsanto and the next time you are in the supermarket reach for the organic product (it is at least 99.1% GM-free according to EU regulation).

Oil and Presidents

Want to know what the last US presidents said about US dependency on foreign oil? Here are lovely quotes, and each one of them is a presidential promise that was never kept. Read this article entitled "A history of false starts for US energy independence".

Solar Water Disinfection

I stumbled upon this article on solar water disinfection, SODIS for short. This seems a simple and reliable way to disinfect smaller amounts of water. Cheap and reliable. I would not necessarily want to use it for daily water consumption, but it seems a great way for emergency situations such as water shortages in a crisis situation or on a hiking trip. Glass unfortunately does not work as well as PET bottles. UVA has a wavelength of 400 nm to 315 nm, UVB ranges from 315 nm to 280 nm. Ordinary window glass passes about 90% of the light above 350 nm, but blocks over 90% of the light below 300 nm, meaning that window glass blocks a bit more than the lower half of the UVB wavelength range. This research data by Waste and Resources Action Programme would indicate that transparent wine bottle can be used. According to this roughly 90% of all UVA passes through, while all UVB is blocked. Maybe additional exposure time to sunshine can compensate for the UVB blocking of glass in comparison with PET.

Forest Kindergarten

A friend told me about Forest Kindergarten this weekend. Apparently this idea originated in Scandinavia and is now popular also in Germany and Austria. The concept is simple, preschool kids in the age of 6 to 10 years are picked up in the morning by a bus and brought to a "forest kindergarten", i.e. to the woods. There they play and learn - 4 hours a day usually - in the outdoor in the midst of the forest under professional adult supervision. They are there all-year round, rain or snow. There is no class room and no building. In the particular example that a friend worked in, there is a shipping container that acts as an emergency shelter and storage room, but is never used by kids under normal circumstances. There is a part in the woods where the trees are younger and denser and offer a natural shelter against rain. In addition there is a large tarp tied between the trees to provide additional protection. This is where the kids and teachers go when it rains heavily. The kids play and learn by climbing the trees, picking up and throwing pine cones, make toys from fallen branches with simple tools like a knife, swinging on ropes hanging off some bigger branches, forming pieces of art similar to spiderwebs with ropes or cords and so forth. The key is that they are always outdoors, always in tune with nature and get to appreciate the many wonders and offerings of a forest. And it is very ecological too: no heating, no building to maintain. What a great concept and what a marvelous way to teach kids about nature and the environment. Here some links: Forest Kindergarten (English), Waldkindergarten (German).

Debt and You

What's the relationship between you and national debt? This video explains it in 5 minutes.

Simpler and More Fulfilling

Voluntary Simplicity can have many aspects, and as this well written article shows it does not necessarily have to be about consuming less. The article is entitled "A Blindness to Systems" and published on The Archdruid Report by John Greer.

This quote from his essay should get you curious: "What would you say, if I told you that I’ve come up with a way to eliminate unemployment – yes, even in the face of the current economic mess? What if I explained that it would also improve the effective standard of living of many families and decrease their income tax burdens? And that it would also increase our economic resilience and sustainability, and simultaneously cause a significant decrease in the amount of automobile traffic? Would you be all for it?" His answer is not new, but it can be a key to a simpler yet richer, i.e. more fulfilled, life for some of us.

Deja Vu

Sadly, the European Union is following the US footsteps. A $1 trillion EU/IMF bailout package was agreed upon over the last weekend. The EU politicians do exactly what they have said they would not do, not so long ago. Once again a crisis is used to reduce civil rights, create more globalization, push through laws that might raise eyebrows under normal circumstances, etc. The goal of it all? It seems to be redistribution of wealth from the poor and middle-class to the super rich, on a global level; meaning that - as an example - the Greek middle-class will pay for the fifth Bentley of some unseen and unnamed rich investor in some far away country. A year ago, the EU politicians vowed to not print money as done by the US to tackle the financial difficulties. Now the EU will be printing. On creation of the EU and the Euro currencies the ECB said that it would never buy EU government bonds. Now they will do exactly that.

And where is the democracy? Have the citizens been asked? Just like the US government decided on the bailout packages for the financial infrastructure without consulting the citizens in 2008-2010, the EU governments do so now. We live in a pseudo-Democracy. Democracy as we have it is just an empty shell after having been carved out from the inside over decades. Many Germans raised their voice against the initial €135 billion bailout package for Greece. Now, against the will and interest of many Europeans, a €750 billion EU/IMF bailout package has been decided without any public discussion, in a big hurry, in just a single weekend.

Are we citizens or are we slaves? You be the judge.

Earth Up Potatoes

While many experienced farmers and bin permaculturists will know the term "earth up", to beginners this might be a new process. It is used to improve the yield of potatoes, by adding more and more soil over the time period of weeks burying the bottom part of the plant and forcing it to produce another "layer" of potatoes. Earthing up can be done in the field or in bins, and even in old tires. Here are some good descriptions and videos of how to grow more potatoes by using the process of earthing up: How To Earth Up Potatoes (on Videojug), How to Earth Up Potatoes (by WikiHow), Growing Potatoes in Tires (on YouTube), and Growing Potatoes in Bins (on YouTube).

Have fun growing your own potatoes, even on your city terrace. And remember, your home-grown potatoes avoid the total of 10 "chemical" treatments of purchase average supermarket potatoes.

Sad Video

This must be one of the worst videos I saw in my life: Slaughter of 12 civilians in Iraq in 2007. Here is the background. In Iraq in 2007: one Reuters journalist and his driver get out of a car, the journalist takes pictures, bystanders gather to watch, a US helicopter observes them and decides to kill them, with 8 innocent people dead or wounded a good samaritan stops his van in which he brings his 2 kids to a school event to help one wounded man, the helicopter gunman is given permission to "engage" again and kills the good samaritan and wounds his two kids. Here are some newspaper articles from the New York Times, The Moderate Voice, and Huffington Post. Initiating violence is a bad thing under all circumstances, even more so in case of state-initiated violence like war.

Euro

In order to get public opinion at least partially in favor of the 135 billion Euro bailout of Greece by the EU and IMF, European newspapers had to report on this issue. It was most likely on the cover pages of most serious national newpapers. In Austria, "Die Presse" on April 30 had a half page report on Greece and the Euro on its coverpage with the title in big bold letters. In this article Die Presse described a scenario in which the EU countries split, with countries like Greece being expelled from the Euro zone. Another scenario that was mentioned is the reverse, in this alternative scenario the rich EU countries like Germany and France voluntarily leave the Euro behind and go back to national currencies like Deutsche Mark or a new currency. The French Le Monde and the Italian La Repubblica had similar reports on the Greek crisis and its impact on the Euro currency and the European Union.

Nobody can say anymore he hasn't heard about it or hasn't been warned. The second phase of the crisis is just starting. And if establishment-oriented newspapers are reporting on the cover pages that the Euro will possibly break, then this has to be taken seriously. The world crisis is far from over, it is about to reach full speed. This is the world we live in: Weak economies worldwide, countries like Greece, Portugal, Ireland close to bankruptcy, not to mention the US, the commercial real-estate crisis about to explode, never before seen debt in the US and EU, official 20% unemployment rate in countries like Spain and unofficially 30% considered possible, doubts about the Euro and the Dollar, the end of the Euro, ... Extremists would add to the scenarios the possibility of a new world currency, now that both the Dollar and the Euro are in terrible shape, this might be an ideal moment for the elite to take over more control and power through the introduction of a new world currency.

These are very shaky times. Beside a few ultra-rich and ultra-influential people, nobody will be able to escape this financial tsunami that is building up and that will change our lives over the next 20 years. Unemployment will affect us or someone close to us, European government (e.g. Austria) will be raising the taxes and invent new taxes which will affect us, inflation will affect us, and so forth. There is no more hiding. Time to stock up on food, coffee and other durable items.

135 Billion Euro

The problem in Greece that temporarily culminated in a joint EU and IMF rescue package of a bailout of 135 billion Euros, has a long history. It did not just happen overnight or in 1 year. It started in 1998, 12 years ago, when the EU Commission rejected including Greece in the start of the Euro currency countries. The Greek story read like a thriller and includes chapters of fraudulent manipulation of its balance sheets with the help of Goldman Sachs (as reported by the New York Times).

With the injection of 135 billion Euros, is the problem resolved? No. According to a report from financial advisor Bert Flossbach who went to Greece for onsite interviews, a large portion of the aid goes directly into the hands of rich Greece banks that speculated with the aid, and indirectly into the pockets of Greece's richest businessmen and foreign investors. In short, the aid will not reach the Greece economy, certainly not the average employee. Secondly, the dept is so high that in the documents that outline how Greece is going to achieve 30 billion Euro expense cuts about 10 billion (30%) is listed as "miscellaneous", i.e. it is unknown. In the radio interview Flossbach used the term "Greece will have to produce this junk of 30% like a magician by pulling a rabbit out of a hat". As a result of the massive dept, the inability of the EU to face the inevitable facts, and the unwillingness of the Greek politicians to take fair, but drastic measures, Greece will be in the very same situation the very same day in 3 years when the EU and IMF aid package runs out. History will repeat itself. In 2013, just like last month, Greece will again face bankruptcy.

Who is to gain, who is to lose? As always when the IMF intervenes, it is a redistribution from the borrower to the lender. In short, the US - principal owner of the IMF - will be richer and the Greek population will be poorer.

Crisis Survival Community

Dr. Jörn Berninger, a macroeconomist and crisis manager, runs an excellent video blog entitled "Crisis Survival Community" as well as a textual Financial Crisis Blog on his home page. I follow him for more than half a year now and found him insightful. He also has a German speaking blog with very similar content. Have a look at these sites yourself, check out his predictions and listen to his comments which now and then also include some hints regarding personal financial investment decisions.